In the recent East Amwell Cemetery Tour, I told the story of St. Andrew’s Church in Ringoes and of the strange ministry of its earliest priest, Rev. Andrew Morton. Taken from “A History of East Amwell, 1700-1800” it bears repeating again.
In the early 1700’s, English, Dutch and Germans all came into the Amwell Valley. At that time Hunterdon County represented the northwest frontier and life was very primitive. The first church in the area was in Hopewell in 1703. In 1725, Anglicans in the area purchased 11 acres east of Ringo’s tavern between todays Harvest Moon and Rt. 202. It was somewhere on that 11 acres they built the first church in the area, a log building they called St. Andrews. All the early ministers that served the church were itinerant ministers from Philadelphia who would come out and stay a week or so. By 1759 the congregation had purchased another 50 acres that went all the way to Toad Lane and they began to build a new stone church and a parsonage.
In 1760 the church’s first permanent minister, the Rev. Andrew Morton arrived from England. He was to live in Ringoes and serve not only this congregation but ones in Kingwood and Readington as well. Since the parsonage in Ringoes was not yet finished, he lived with one of the parishioners, John Garrison and his family in Cloverhill. It was here his troubles began.
It seems that Garrison had a daughter Esther, whom many people today would call a “loose woman”. Morton became infatuated with her and very soon she became pregnant. Morton denied he was the father but Esther proclaimed he definitely was. This split St. Andrew’s congregation in two with half of the people believing the Garrisons and half the minister. This turned into a local feud with articles being written about it even in Philadelphia. Garrison became so enraged he changed the locks on the parsonage, forcing Morton to live elsewhere and even changed the locks on the church building, forcing the congregation to meet in the woods.
After several years of this scandalous situation pitting one family against another and tearing the community apart, Morton finally left the area in 1766 and moved to North Carolina, where he met a young woman, married and had several children. After serving as a minister in North Carolina he moved to a new ministry in Virginia. At the new church he did not last long – he was quickly dismissed for “gross immorality” and not heard from again in the history books.
Jim Davidson